While attending a community college and playing soccer at age 19, Christy Owen met a Deaf lady who began to teach her sign language and introduced her to the life and culture of D/deaf people.  Intrigued by the educational and social challenges, and by the need for them to be reached with the gospel, she chose a career working with the Deaf community, specifically assisting Deaf adults in meeting academic/career goals.  She also “volunteered in ways that would allow [her] to share Christ with Deaf people”.

Her graduate studies in Rehabilitation Counseling in Deafness moved her from Texas to Arkansas.  She took courses in Sign Language, Ethics and Interpreting, and passed several of the certification exams for Texas and Arkansas, but interpreting was not her career objective.  She completed her Master’s degree and landed her dream job as coordinator of a Deaf program at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, a position she intended to stay in until retirement.

She attended Fellowship Bible Church in Little Rock, and met a family consisting of a Deaf man, his hearing/interpreter/CODA (Child of Deaf Adults) wife, and their Deaf daughter adopted from Honduras.  This was the next pivotal point in her life, as she grew to know and love this family.  In 1994, she joined a short term medical missions trip with World Gospel Outreach, in part to serve as this man’s interpreter, and in part to learn more about the life of his daughter who had become her dear friend.  She went to Honduras five times between 1994 and 1999, the last three of those being focused on the Deaf community.

World Gospel Outreach (WGO), founded in 1984, is a ministry focused on bringing the gospel to Honduras, specifically by rescuing and raising children as bilingual (English/Honduran Spanish) family members and sending medical teams into the capital,Tegucigalpa.  Their service to the impoverished children of Honduras included a small Deaf ministry that according to Christy was doing everything, but nothing well.  In 1999, soon after she returned to her dream job at the University, content with annual short term trips, God clearly called her to become a full time missionary to the Deaf in Honduras. Things fell into place quickly for her, and nine weeks later she was in her new home with no plans to ever live in the United States again.

The first order of business was to revamp the mission, establishing training for the Deaf Honduran Christians so that they may be the leaders and ministers to reach out to the other Deaf people in their communities and country.  Comparatively speaking, the Deaf community in America has significant advantages with schools, interpreters, and laws to support equality.  The Honduran culture remains in the dark ages regarding Deaf people, refusing to allow them into schools (which are optional, not required, for hearing children), and generally keeping them hidden away in isolation in their family homes working the most basic trades as servants rather than people with the potential to be productive in society.  Christy, with a heart to empower Deaf people, a Master’s degree and experience in academic and career counseling, an intimate relationship with a family and church tied to Honduras, and growing relationships with the Deaf community there over 5 years of mission trips, was uniquely qualified to step into her current position as the Executive Director of New Life Deaf Ministry (NLDM).  On October 9th of this year, she began her 12th year as a full-time missionary.  It is not the life she planned or dreamed of, but it’s the life she loves, the life she was designed for and called to, and she wouldn’t trade it for anything. In her own words,

“Obviously there are things you give up when you move to a third world country as a full-time missionary.  I notice now when I am in the States that it just seems like many conversations revolve around material things or moving up the ladder career-wise.  I am very very very blessed even as a foreign missionary (I’m certainly not living on a dirt floor in a tribal tent somewhere) but I know that now at my age and with the job I had and my master’s degree, yeah I would probably be purchasing house, maybe I would be married, and I’d be moving up in my career and in my salary.  But NONE of that can replace what I have now… a beautiful community of Christ-honoring people around me, a beautiful Honduran daughter…, an incredible ministry working with an incredible staff, and I get to see God’s grace, love, and miracles at work everyday.”

The primary perspective for this ministry, and recommended for any other ministries, is that the people should be reached with the gospel then discipled and trained to lead ministries and reach others in their native language and culture.  Over ten years, the Deaf of Honduras’ capital city have made a 180-degree transition.  They had extremely low educational levels, were lacking in leadership and organization skills, and without opportunities to be active in society and their community. Now, they are leaders of a church (every aspect), an annual camp, teachers in the deaf school (Happy Hands School), a P.E. Coach, a special projects assistant to the director, church volunteers, and even employees in government agencies.  The church and camp are completely Deaf led, fulfilling the hard-fought objective of the missionaries to keep the Deaf people from becoming dependent on them as “boss or provider”.  At this time, the plan is not to spread out and start missions in other cities just yet – rather, they intend to continue growing deeper in the biblical leadership training of both Deaf and Hearing Hondurans, developing curriculum and materials, and establishing strong permanent foundations so that the ministry will grow and expand with new generations.

Unfortunately, the rest of society has yet to make the same transition, so the ministry continues to seek out Deaf people and their families, with the objective of freeing them from two kinds of bondage – communication/social and spiritual.  The ministry and school have become the gathering point for Deaf adults and families with Deaf children.  Christy says they come to them for “most every kind of crisis imaginable and for social purposes” which is both wonderful and occasionally difficult.  They advertise in newspapers and flyers, by word of mouth/hand, on TV, and on the radio (for hearing parents of deaf children).  Like theUnited States, about 90% of Deaf children are born to Hearing parents.  What I found most impressive, though, is the following difference:

“The parents in our school are required to sign an agreement that they will be active in their child’s education.  We are a “family” school.  Family members are required to take a six-year sign language program (six 10-week courses).  Our parents are way ahead in sign language skills compared to hearing parents of deaf kids in the States.  Our older kids’ parents who have been with us 6 – 8 years are very good signers.  This is high priority in our school (parent communication with child and participation in his/her education).  We teach parents how to read (in LESHO) to their children, how to play games, discipline issues, talking about feelings, etc. “ 

This year, they began community sign language courses using the parent sign class curriculum.  There is also an early childhood program to work with deaf children 0-3 years of age, the critical period for language and culture development.

Unlike most North American missionaries, who learn one foreign language and its local variants, Christy and other missionaries to foreign Deaf cultures needed to learn both the sign language and the spoken language.  Just as American Sign Language is completely different from English, “Lengua de Señas Hondureñas” (LESHO) or Honduran Sign Language is different from Spanish.  This means that Christy is now quadrilingual, having learned both languages in both countries.  She also had to stretch to minister among a closed culture (Deaf) within a foreign culture (Honduran), carefully developing the trust and respect of both.  The key for her is remembering that she is “working as an ambassador of God and … NOT working for the Deaf and Honduran”.

Because she had been on the short term missions trips, there wasn’t a culture shock, but there is what she refers to as ‘cultural fatigue’, the “weariness that comes at times with how things work in Honduras as opposed to my home country”.  As examples, she stated that “bill paying is a pain, and people don’t tend to respect lines and personal space as much”.  Language remains an issue and challenge.  She has been the only North American in the ministry for most of her time there, recently adding one other person who is working with school families.  Another is raising support in the States and is expected to arrive next August.  She refers to the relationship with her staff as “a really beautiful harmony”.  Americans and others, she says, sometimes struggle with cultural and language conflicts, making things a bit awkward at times.

For her first three years in Honduras, she continued to work under World Gospel Outreach, then they helped the ministry to become independent so that it could have a Board of Directors with a Deaf missions focus. Fellowship Bible Church in Arkansas remains her sending church, and her relationship with the family there remains strong.  For the first seven years, she was responsible for raising 100% of her own support.  Three years ago, her position became salaried, but it includes the responsibility of raising support for the ministry.

Groups and individuals continue to make short term missions trips, helping in the classrooms, developing materials, and working in community projects as well as occasional painting and other small projects.  Teams give the ministry more exposure and accomplish projects quickly, whereas individuals serving for longer terms, even 1-2 months, are very much needed.

When asked for a few last tips, or things she might do the same or differently, she offered the following:

• Always start with Deaf (indigenous) leadership and developing national support and training
• Take care of yourself, a fast pace will catch up with you, but time off and self-care will allow missionaries to better serve others for a longer time
• Remember that what you “know” may not work in another country/culture – be respectful, humble yourself, learn, do it their way until you either have their trust or realize that their way is actually better
• Be yourself, loving and laughing at your differences
• Don’t try to convince them that you know what their life is like, because you never will